Vittoria’s tone had Arielle stiffening, paused on the precipice of indecision. The portal was already reaching out to wrap around her waist, but Vittoria was giving her time to conclude her business, probably so she didn't accidentally hurt the snake.
She wasn’t done healing it. Not even close, but at the same time, she couldn’t ignore the urgency in Vittoria’s order.
The serpent still stared at her, and the baby dragon still whined. But ultimately, Arielle withdrew her spell and let it collapse.
“Sorry,” she told the two. “I’ll be back if I can. I’ll help you, I promise.”
They did not respond, but she didn’t think they had that much faith in her words.
Weighed down by regret, she let the portal take her away to where Vittoria was standing, much closer to the volcano.
In fact, she was atop a hill, separated by a valley that was packed with so many canopy trees that she could not see the bottom of it to know how deep it went. Vittoria was frowning, not even looking up when Arielle arrived.
“Do you see it?” Vittoria asked.
“See what?”
“I thought you might, since you can see essences.”
Arielle focused on the floating orbs in the atmosphere. At first, she thought Vittoria was talking about how thick the cloud of calor was by the Volcano, with ample free mini-orbs that floated about. Then she realized she had never explained the free mini-orbs to Vittoria properly, and furthermore, she could not see them to know that they were there.
Besides, Vittoria wasn’t staring at the mountain, but at the valley. There must be something else she saw there.
Ari followed the pattern of orbs and saw circles of Calor floating intermittently above the trees; amidst them were strings of Vacu. Arielle didn't know what it meant, although the combination did look familiar.
“What is it?” she asked.
“A ritual,” Vittoria said. “My soul sight reveals that several souls were sacrificed in that valley and have been attached to the ritual circle.”
"That's awful," Arielle said, and now she realized why the pattern seemed familiar. It reminded her of Yseult's blood ritual.
"It is," Vittoria said, her eyes narrowing further. “On the day that Elric was attacked, there were several emergencies triggered by the demons to distract the other council members from attending the meeting and realizing that Elric was missing. Most of them were, of course, rifts. But the report about the lava gremlin also coincided with that, and I always wondered how they managed to agitate the dragon in such a short time. After a while, though, I thought it might be just a coincidence that it happened. However, now I’m thinking it's something else."
"What?"
"That the demons have a plan, and it's much bigger than just the demonic sect."
Arielle waited for Vittoria to explain what she meant, but Vittoria rested in silent thought for some time. The lines of her forehead indicated that she was working things out internally. Arielle gave her a few more moments before she spoke again.
"These rituals take time, Arielle. Many, many months. Many souls collected. It takes forethought. This means that it has been going on since even before Elric began investigating the demonic sect, and no one was aware of it. Well, no one without soulsight that is." She drew back. "On the other hand, I don't think the sect knows this part of the plan."
"How do you know?"
"Because there was no single hint to this in any of the information that Gio and Elric gathered. It also doesn't make sense given their ultimate goal." Vittoria sighed and finally put down her hand. "Okay. Let me start from the beginning. The circle you see is not just any ritual circle. It's no average summoning. They are trying to summon Eskil the Dirge. Do you know what that is?"
"A giant." She'd read about him in a story,
"No. The King of the Fire Giants. Most specifically, the sleeping King who rests underneath this very island and holds it up in his hand. They're trying to awaken him."
"Why would they do that?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" she said. "What do the demons hope to gain with this? Before, I assumed that the family of demons that took over the sect were simply trying to use humans to stay in the human realm and run experiments. But it seems they weren't satisfied with just that and want to raise giants too." She paused on that thought for a couple of seconds. "I wonder if there's some kind of power struggle in the demonic realm that I'm not aware of. Something they tried to escape."
"You think it's the same demons that hurt Elric that are behind this?"
"It could be. It could be a different set of demons, but I'm leaning toward the former just because of how everything transpired. What we do know for certain is that someone else, apart from the demonic sect, is involved. Eskil is one of the Great Guardians of the historic Calor families, and their blood is needed to awaken him. One of them has to have helped the demons."
Arielle thought back to all the historically Calor-dominant families she knew. Riorke's family was one of them. She thought Lacey's might be as well. And of course, Selena.
She mentioned that to Vittoria, and she said, "Selena Gregor. As in daughter of Giorgio Gregor the Second? The last King of Calor?"
"Yes."
Vittoria contemplated it. "Unless she did it herself, no one else in her bloodline has a strong enough tie to be able to cast that ritual. I heard every direct member of her father’s lineage is dead."
"Really?"
"Yes. They were brutally killed when she was young. She only has a few cousins here and there. From my knowledge, she was raised by an order of monks in one of the isolated mountains. Can't imagine that was a great experience for a child that age."
"Oh." Arielle had known that Selena's parents were dead. Lyra had mentioned it once, but Ari had never taken the time to consider what that meant, how it would feel to grow up after the murder of your entire family.
Probably because she’d been self-centered.
She wondered distantly how the other girl had coped with that. Ari herself had often felt lonely growing up, but at least she had known that her mom and dad and Celie and Brom were there for her.
But to think about them all being dead…
She shuddered.
Or did Selena not think about them at all? Did she consider the monks her family?
Vittoria kept going. “Riorke Camhanach. The last name sounds familiar. That's General Riordan’s brother, right?”
“Yes. He's my friend at the academy.”
She hesitated and brushed her chin. “The Camhanachs are honorbound warriors. I can't think of any of them doing something like this, unless things have drastically changed since I've been in the loop. I'm not familiar with that third family, but truly most of the historical Calor-dominant families seem too noble to pull something like this. In fact, I struggle to think of whom amongst them would be this foolish."
"There's a battle right now, isn't there? Between Riorke’s family and some other clan."
"Yeah, the Lethamons. I don't think that's related. Those two have had disputes since before I was born, and believe me, that's a long time. Plus I’m not entirely sure what they could gain from it. The giant is only summoned in world-ending scenarios, which I don't think a silly spat qualifies as. And even if they awakened the giant, it would only be a matter of time before the Ascendant stepped in and struck it down, permanently tarnishing their family name and probably earning them a few permanent suppressions."
"Could it be that they're participating in the ritual involuntarily? Maybe they don't know entirely what it's for, or maybe they've been kidnapped by a demon, and their blood is being used."
"That's a good angle, although no kidnappings have been reported. In any case, we at least solved the mystery of the agitation."
"Which is?"
"They've somehow bound the dragon’s soul to this ritual circle."
“So the dragon is dead.”
“No. It’s resisting the death process, hence why the agitation is occurring. Dragons are extremely resilient, so it appears that its soul is caught in a constant death cycle, which means that the ritual is continuously getting fed. And if they do manage to kill it, well, one dragon soul is worth at least a hundred human ones.”
It pricked at Arielle’s heart. She thought of the poor dragon, slowly dying in its volcano, and of its child being hurt and poisoned too.
"Can we free the dragon?" Arielle asked. "Maybe I can–"
Stolen novel; please report.
"You can't. Not if you couldn't heal the snake."
She bit her lip. "Well, we could at least set it free. We know that it’s hurt, so it can't hurt us."
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Vittoria gave her a look. "Freeing an agitated dragon can lead to one of two things. It's either the dragon is too weak to fight back, and that means that it's practically on its deathbed. Or it's desperately fighting for survival, which means that it's in pain and angry enough to raze the entire island to the ground. It will likely target villages too, in which case we will need to evacuate before we free it, and even then..." She paused, then admitted, "Even then I'm not sure it's a good idea. It's dangerous to even try, unless we can somehow send it back where it came from."
"So we're just going to leave it here?" Ari didn't like that thought, but Vittoria didn't look like she was budging.
She went silent, leaving Arielle to face the volcano once again. She noticed some of the free Calor mini-orbs were moving in a certain pattern down the side of the protruded earth. Given how mobile they were, and how many of them were concentrated at the base, she’d thought there would be more dispersed in several parts of the forest, perhaps in reverse exponential order. But they weren't. Instead, they moved in a constant trail underground, with only a few of them jumping out of the stream.
“They’re being siphoned," Arielle murmured.
“What?” Vittoria asked.
“The free mini-orbs I told you about," she said, even though Vittoria hadn’t liked or understood her initial explanation. “They’re caught in the leyline and being taken somewhere."
Vittoria followed Arielle's gaze, though she could not see what Arielle saw. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Explain these mini-orbs to me again.”
Arielle took a deep breath and went into detail, explaining to her how she could see each particle that made up an essence and how they usually remained in concentric rings, but that this one had jumped out and existed on its own, causing a whole bunch of problems.
Vittoria was silent and looked a lot more doubtful about her explanation than Valeria did, but she didn't refute it.
“You said these…free mini-orbs can charge up essences on their own?” she asked.
“Yes," she answered. "If someone is siphoning them, they probably know what they can do. And they might be using them for something.” Though Arielle didn’t know how they had learned of its existence without essence sight.
“I’m willing to bet it’s the person that's consorting with whichever demon is behind this,” Vittoria muttered and rubbed her hand over her face. “These rifts will be the death of us.”
“What do we do now?"
“Well, you are going back to campus. It's too dangerous for us to hang around here for long. I’d also like to evacuate the nearby villages for now. If the dragon breaks free of this bondage, there’s no telling what kind of rampage it's going to wreak. We also have to arrange to put up a permanent shield and alert system just in case, but I'll need Elric's help with that."
“Okay. And what about the animals in this forest?”
“Did you manage to heal the snake?”
Arielle shook her head.
Vittoria gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Arielle."
She sighed, feeling hollow inside, though she'd understood this could happen and it was not Vittoria’s fault.
“I’m going back to campus now?" She was disappointed. She’d thought that at least she would achieve something on this trip, but now it all felt wasted.
“No,” Vittoria said after a pause. “Not directly. Have you kept up with your centering exercises?"
She nodded.
"Good. Then I think it's time I taught you soul magic too, or soul sight at least. If the demons are involved in this, you might need it. It will help you recognize them better."
Arielle's mood lifted somewhat, but her mind still lingered on the animals, particularly the serpent and the dragon. She'd told them that she would help them. She’d promised.
“I don’t want to leave them here," she said. "Maybe I don't have a complete cure right now, but with time, we could probably make one. If they're here, they'll just keep getting hurt more and more, undoing my progress and making it more difficult to heal them in the end."
"I understand, but we have no choice but to leave them behind. Unless you plan on teleporting an entire forest of animals somewhere else."
"Not all of them," Ari said. That would probably be unreasonable to ask. "Just the ones I've made promises to."
“Promises?”
Ari nodded. She held up her fingers. “Just two animals.”
Vittoria raised an eyebrow. "You don't have space to keep them."
"But you do," Arielle pointed out, and Vittoria blinked as though stunned by her audacity.
She was already shaking her head, practically sputtering a stunned laugh. "Did you just...Arielle, I can't...we can't...."
"Please," she said. "I'll help you with all your missions from now on."
"That's not entirely up to you. Some of my missions will be too dangerous."
"Yes, but some of them won't be. I can help you with those."
"You were going to do that anyway."
That was true. Arielle did enjoy these excursions with Vittoria because she ended up learning so much about spells and other things.
"Please?" she tried again in a quieter voice, which had Vittoria scowling deeply, then rolling her eyes.
“So you’re going to have me keep a baby dragon in the desert. Lovely.”
"Really?" She was afraid to hope in case Vittoria changed her mind.
“Yes," she grumbled. "I'm not even sure why myself. I'm usually stricter with my soldiers."
"I'm not a soldier."
"What you are is an annoying, stubborn, little brat.” She said it while ruffling Arielle's hair, so the barb didn't have much bite to it.
Then she stared back at the volcano.
"We should at least check on the dragon, shouldn't we?" Arielle suggested. "To see if it's too weak to fight back?"
She hesitated. "Maybe. I'll report everything to the council except for what you told me about the mini-orbs. Not only do I not know how to explain it, but I'm also afraid that the council will use the information wrongly. I prefer them not to know everything I know. So we'll have to investigate on our own."
"Okay," Arielle said.
"Good. Now we can–"
Vittoria's words cut off as she and Arielle were suddenly airborne, a second before an explosion hit the spot they were standing.
Even as they raced away, hot missiles whizzed past their heads. Vittoria dodged, and Arielle put up a shield.
When the smoke cleared, she saw what stood a few feet from where they had been standing. It was a creature, growing bigger and bigger, with green skin, curled ears, and bulging eyes.
It was also wearing a purple robe.
"A goblin?" Ari asked.
"Close. It's an imp hybrid." The word hybrid made Arielle nervous, but Vittoria clarified. "Don't worry, this one doesn't have magic-cancelling abilities. Just explosive attacks, demonic resilience, and a natural sneaky nature. Also a massive inferiority complex, because they're not a full demon, and feel the need to overcompensate for that."
“You,” the creature snarled, its beady gaze settling on Vittoria. “I smell one of us on you. What have you done with our brother?”
“I have him in my basement," Vittoria called out. "Wanna see?”
The demon sent another blaze of fire at her, and Vittoria and Ari sidestepped him easily again.
“You know this is actually perfect timing,” Vittoria said. “We were needing another demon soul to practice with. It might as well be yours.”
At the same time, the portal bird perched on Arielle's shoulder and said, "Arielle, do you want to fight him?"
“I suppose I could,” Ari said.
"Good. Today, you will learn how to collect a soul." Their words were interrupted by another fireball, which they flew around again, as Vittoria taunted the demon some more. "Demon souls are very resilient, so they're the best for beginners to practice with. The only thing is that they typically fight back, and most beginners don't have the skills to wrangle them. But I think you do. Especially since this one is only a Level 400."
"I will destroy you, witch," the demon said, the air next to them sizzling, but Vittoria teleported them a distance away before it exploded.
"We'll see about that," she said as the bird continued. "Normally I would tell you to just kill him, but he might know more about the ones who set up the ritual circle. So hurt him, disable him so he can't call in reinforcements, but don't kill him, and don't do anything that damages vocal cords or his jaw. Imp hybrids don't regenerate as fast, and I don't want to wait a week till we can talk to him."
"Okay." Arielle mentally crossed off different means of elimination, finding that as her list reduced, the difficulty increased.
"I'll go check in on the dragon in the meantime, but I'll be watching you." And with that, Vittoria disappeared, leaving just Arielle and the portal bird.
Oh, and the very angry half-demon.
“Don't run, you human scum,” he spat after Vittoria’s departure. “Where are you and why have you left me with this puny creature?”
Puny. That was rude.
Arielle had grown taller since she came to the academy. She hadn't measured, but she felt that her robe was no longer brushing the floor the same way it–
His next fireball was trapped in a bubble of void that Arielle held. She also trapped his next two missiles, stopping them all in the air as she continued to think about how tall she had gotten and how to disable but not kill him.
"Disable, don't kill," she recited. "Hurt him, but not his vocal cords."
Would putting a few bullets of void through his chest be disabling enough? Would that kill him? Just how resilient were imps?
Hmm.
"You will pay for her sins," the demon jeered, drifting around her, circling like a predator. "Whatever you have done to one of my demon brothers, I will inflict on you a thousand-fold, you low-ranked piece of human excrement."
Arielle was tired of the insults from the creatures who hurt Elric, so she shot back, "Yeah, well, you're demon excrement as well, except you're only half demon, if that."
That last one seemed to hit a nerve.
His face transformed, twisting into a cruel grimace, and he split the ground open, summoning a wave of lava.
As it hurtled toward Arielle, she simply held out her hand, grabbed his spell, twisting it around.
She used the Phasewalker’s technique, transforming some of the lava into fiery arrows that she redirected back at him.
She simultaneously activated [Sensate], using it to ensure she didn't stab him anywhere vital.
He fumbled for a second, eyes bulging in shock, and struggled to snatch back his spell before using a shield to redirect them and escaping.
But Arielle activated [Mass Anchor] and used [Attract] to yank him into place to meet the missiles.
He screamed in pain as he was skewered and sent into a tree.
Arielle anchored him there, paralyzing him as she descended.
As her feet touched the ground, the creature's eyes widened, with the beginnings of fear peeking from them.
He made choking noises when she got close, which made Arielle vaguely concerned that she’d gone too far.
"Can you talk?" Ari asked.
Despite the fear and his relative paralysis, he spat at her feet. "H...human scum..." he stammered.
She nodded. "Good, though you’re very rude even for a demon.” She had only met two other vocal ones, but still.
He tried to say something else but couldn’t, simply coughing black blood on the floor. Ari was once again worried that she had overdone it.
“You should have stayed in place,” she scolded, and crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to feel bad. “It would have hurt less had you just accepted the blow. It wasn’t like you were going to win anyway. It’s sometimes important to welcome defeat, gracefully."
She heard a coughed laughter, and when she turned around, saw Vittoria walking up to her.
"Did I hurt him too much?" Arielle asked.
"No," she said, eyes gleaming. "I think it’s the perfect amount."
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